Incoming: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package DLC Hits PSN Tomorrow

First and foremost, the first downloadable content for Modern Warfare 2 — The Stimulus Package — will hit the PSN Store for $14.99 and bring with it five new maps to the multiplayer of MW2. Included in those five new maps are two classic Call of Duty 4 maps that we all know and love, and three completely new locations that offer a variety of unique locations for your favorite gametypes. The Stimulus Package includes:

Bailout – An American apartment complex that is amazing for objective gametypes, especially Capture the Flag, but one of those maps that works well regardless of what type of game you’re playing it on. Its long sightlines — like sniping from a blown-out wall of a second-story apartment suite — give it some nice spots for long-range sniping but also has plenty of flanking routes through the bullet-riddled gym, hallways, lobbies, and interconnecting units.

Salvage – A snowy junkyard covered in debris, crushed cars, and my favorite aspect — no place to hide (well, maybe one, but hiding in the dog house isn’t going to win you the game). This aspect of beautiful but simplistic design is what makes Salvage my new favorite map for Hardcore Team Deathmatch; it forces you to rely on your speed, accuracy, and skill. It’s all about offensive, sorry campers! This map is about getting in and STAYING in the fight.

Storm – A rainy warehouse district on the outskirts of a looming thunderstorm with booming lightning and rolling thunder. A massive interconnected warehouse with overhead walkways and plenty of machinery for cover makes this great for big team games. With plenty of surrounding outdoors areas for flanking or cutting through the connected buildings, this is a map that benefits from two teams working together to control their area and lock down domination points. This map has a great atmosphere and always results in some insane HQ games.

Crash – A war-torn urban environment with a crashed helicopter surrounded by several great vantage points. Whether you’re taking pop shots from the three-story building overlooking the map, or covering the center objective point from the second story of the appropriately named “blue room” windows, Crash is the first fan-favorite map to make a return from Call of Duty 4, and is one those multiplayer locations that is perfectly balanced regardless of the gametype you throw on it. Team Deathmatch is king on Crash for me personally and we’ve maintained every cover, sniper vantage, and perfect ‘nade spot you’ve grown to love, but have also filled the map out with even more detail.

Overgrown – A massive and open village divided down the center by a dried-up creekbed. Overgrown is a snipers paradise with its high grass, super-long sightlines, and earns its cred as one of our largest multiplayer maps. It’s back by popular demand from the community, and was one of my personal favorite maps of all time from Call of Duty 4. It’s been updated with some new lightning and atmospheric changes, yet maintains its trademark flow and appeal for big team games.

When you jump online to enjoy the new maps, you’re also going to be greeted with a few new additions to the playlists structure in multiplayer. You’ll notice two new playlists added to the bottom of the list: Stimulus & Stimulus Hardcore. These two playlists will allow you to play your favorite gametypes on ONLY the new maps. That way you get to experience them as much as you like.

Stimulus – This playlist will include all gametypes for 8-12 players and rotating through ONLY the new Stimulus Maps.

Stimulus Hardcore – This playlist will include Hardcore Ricochet Team Deathmatch, Hardcore Ricochet HQ Pro, Hardcore Ricochet Search and Destroy for 8-12 players and rotating through ONLY the new Stimulus Maps.

While these two playlists are reserved for those who download The Stimulus Package, the same day we’ll also be introducing an all new playlist for ALL Modern Warfare 2 players.

Team Tactical – 6-8 Players playing small team based games with Team Deathmatch, Domination, Capture the Flag, and Demolition. (First Person viewpoint)

This playlist is being added by HUGE demand from the community on our forums, Twitter, and other messages you’ve sent in to us; in addition to another requested change of adding the Ranger maps (Terminal, Skidrow, Highrise, Invasion) to the HC HQ Pro playlist.

When I said onslaught, I MEANT onslaught!

That’s not even all. When all these updates hit tomorrow on May 4th, we’ll also be flipping the Double XP switch for the first time, ON ALL PLAYLISTS, FOR ALL PLAYERS! So when you jump online you’ll be earning twice as many XP for your kills and objectives to help you finish off that Prestige you’ve been working on or, for all you level 70s, the deciding factor to take the leap into the next Prestige.

Tomorrow is all about adding even more mileage to your Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer, giving you all new locations to play, new playlists to play them on, and Double XP to make it all that much sweeter. I look forward to seeing all of you online!

You can follow official Modern Warfare 2 updates and news on Twitter by following @fourzerotwo.

Speaking from the developer side, not the business side of things, these maps will definitely give you a lot of multiplayer mileage for your dollar. I think every player should look at how much they play Modern Warfare 2 online and how much more play time they’ll get out of it with this additional content to determine if it’s a fair trade off for them.

If you decide to pick them up, I have no doubt you’ll enjoy them. If not though, you should still jump on and enjoy some double XP with us!

Im sure many MW ps3 fans have bin drooling for this day to come..and what better day for a psn update than a tuesday!(which i TOTTALY 4GOT ABOUT) As for me i can wait it out..im sure they will have a price cut soon..im saving my doe for red dead redemption and lost planet 2..which i will both get used..since Capcom and RockStar are FULLY LOADED with MONEY..they will be fine without mines >:p

There is still lots of support for Modern Warfare 2 that I’m focused on seeing happen. Including, but not limited to, this and future DLC as well as continued Playlist updates and patches. Current project is cleaning up the PS3 Leaderboards for Modern Warfare 2 so our legit players can see their deserved glory.

Can’t wait for this and YES!! 1st person Team Tactical! I’ve missed it so much. +2x XP! Hopefully in the future we can get some more hardcore modes, I’m not the biggest fan of tdm or hq since they end up being a campfest.

Thanks! We’re always listening to playlist suggestions, so if there is something not there that you’d like to see, just let me know and if the demand is high enough, we’ll add it.

Right now Team Tactical has been a huge demand among the community so I’m stoked to add it to the playlists. Hardcore Team Deathmatch with Ricochet rules is a nice change of pace in the New Stimulus Hardcore playlist as its the first time you get to play Hardcore TDM with Ricochet rules.

Looks like pretty good maps but like i have said in the past way too much for content that is a) already on the disk and b) 2 literally ported maps. For $15? Genuinely a piss-take I’d rather get a pre-owned game for that much or a descent PSN game. Don’t count on the price dropping anytime soon anyway lads unless you forgot the publisher is Activision..

i agree $15 is alil more than the $10 id be 100% ok with, but now my clan can play more than karachi, terminal, and skidrow every time we load in lol.

id still like to see a Hardcore Ricochet Team Deathmatch without having to get the pack tho. just getting so tired of getting sqawned killed at the start of the match and then the same guy follows everyone the entire match. or up the penalties (kicked from match after 3rd team kill with no rejoin)

Woow why so much for it? Why not like 5$ or even 10$ I mean we all payed 70 bucks for modern warfare 2 and now we just still wanna play on with the new maps I mean alota people have the game don’t you think if alota people bought it for 5 bucks that’s still a budget for you guys come on please do a price cut atleast 10$ :( thanks.

@Robert Bowling
I remember you trash the PS3 a few years ago and quickly delete your blog post when you got called out by the readers. A notorious Xbox 360 fanboy posting on the Playstation Blog trying to rip people off on a over price map pack with 2 old maps and 3 unbalance maps. But hay, I am sure all the people that still play MW2 on the PS3 will probably buy this.

Regretfully I don’t have an exact time when the PSN update will go live. A title update will go out first, which fixes exploits in multiplayer and also adds support for the new maps. Once that is done, then the PSN store update is free to go live. However, that timetable is handled by the PSN store team to ensure a smooth launch.

Good luck to those of you waiting for a price drop for DLC on the world’s most successful console game in history. “They” have no reason to drop it a cent, and we the sheep will pay making their stock worth even more. I’m just sayin’.

@10 The price will drop once they realize nobodys gonna buy that crap………every1 needs 2 realize that if they want things 2 change they have 2 hold their grounds so if you want cheaper or even free dlc dont buy it and it will get through 2 them.
P.S.Ive been telling every1 MW2 is garbage since it was released…..if you want a good fps play a sony exclusive like KZ2, MAG, or R2!!!

Okay, so anybody who wants to say thanks for overcharging me for maps AND snubbing me along with all other PS3 players by making us wait 2 weeks longer than Xbox 360 owners, you guys go ahead and spend your $15. Next time it will be $20 and you’ll wait a month longer.

why is it that all these game companies think we have millions of dollars to spend on their products. all this extra stuff the game companies keep putting out for dlc after a game comes should be free to the public since we the consumers have already paid $60.00 for a game. i do not know if anybody else has been watching but the economic crunches this country face are still not over by a long shot. just because the whitehouse administration says it is does not make it so, and the companies out there need to actually watch the public and not wall street or the whitehouse, because i for one am so sick of getting a game for 60 bucks and then i wind up having to pay 10-40 more for extra dlc that should have been there in the first place!!!!!

I’d rather wait for Call of Duty: Black Ops. It seems like Treyarch makes much better CoD games as they are filled with less glitches, more blood & gore (not necessary but a nice bonus), and exciting gametypes (like nazi zombies). Another big plus is they don’t have game ending killstreaks like the lame nuke that everyone loves to camp & boost for.